The term "cult movie" has an established usage that can't be derived from the definitions of "cult" and "movie." I remember how taken aback I was when my college roommate told me his father had a huge collection of teen exploitation movies. Like anybody else who had never heard the term before would have, I thought he was talking about his father's porn collection. The meaning of words used together doesn't always have the obvious or strictly logical relationship with what the words mean separately.

Everything comes from somewhere, I suppose that someone could have coined the term "marginally appealing movie that for some reason small, yet occasionally larger, groups of people like, but others may or may not, but those that do really, really, really like it", but that's no where near as catchy.

While it's true that a strictly logical interpretation of the individual words of a phrase are not necessary to understand what that phrase means, words do mean things. We can't just dismiss them because we feel like our interpretation of the phrase is the truest best meaning.

The problem ultimately is that the term has been and will continue to be used in the most broadest of terms with all sorts of variety of films to be included in it's domain. I maintain that a movie on any list of cult movies are primarily included because of the nature of it's fans rather than any other criteria. And the word "cult" was used specifically because of the audience's reaction and participation in their enjoyment rather than any other matter of genre, nostalgia, intertexual-ness, shocking material, level of quality or size of fan base that could be attributed to the movie.

The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (2007, d. Andrew Dominik)

Hard Boiled (1992, d. John Woo)

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953, d. Roy Rowland)

Metropolis (1927, d. Fritz Lang)

The Stunt Man (1980, d. Richard Rush)

Bound (1996, d. The Wachowskis)

The Last Seduction (d. John Dahl)

Over The Edge (1979, d. Jonathan Kaplan)

Danger: Diabolik (1968, d. Mario Bava)

Barbarella (1968, d. Roger Vadim)

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974, d. John Hough)

The Driver (1978, d. Walter Hill)

After Hours (1985, d. Martin Scorsese)

Stuck (2007, d. Stuart Gordon)

Fritz The Cat (1972, d. Ralph Bakshi)

The Thing (1982, d. John Carpenter)

Wizards (1977, d. Ralph Bakshi)

Night of the Comet (1984, d. Thom Eberhardt)

Death Race 2000 (1975, d. Paul Bartel)

Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979, d. Allan Arkush)

Basket Case (1982, d. Frank Henenlotter)

Last Night (1998, d. Don McKellar)

Charley Varrick (1973, d. Don Siegel)

Zelig (1983, d. Woody Allen)

Hopscotch (1980, d. Ronald Neame)

The Last of Sheila (1973, d. Herb Ross)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974, d. Joseph Sargent)

Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974, d. Sam Peckinpah)

My Own Private Idaho (1991, d. Gus Van Sant)

Rolling Thunder (1977, d. John Flynn)

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, d. John Carpenter)

Pontypool (2008, d. Bruce McDonald)

Night of The Creeps (1986, d. Fred Dekker)

The Rocketeer (1991, d. Joe Johnston)

Ed Wood (1994, d. Tim Burton)

Zardoz (1974, d. John Boorman)

The Ref (1994, d. Ted Demme)

The Duelists (1977, d. Ridley Scott)

The Grey Fox (1982, d. Philip Borsos)

Time After Time (1979, d. Nicholas Meyer)

The Ninth Configuration (1980, d. William Peter Blatty)

The President's Analyst (1968, d. Theodore J. Flicker)

Caligula (1979, d. Tinto Brass and Bob Guccione)

Serenity (2005, d. Joss Whedon)

The Fall (2006, d. Tarsem Singh)

Shortbus (2006, d. John Cameron Mitchell)

Drive (2011, d. Nicolas Winding Refn)

Super (2010, d. James Gunn)

Hobo With A Shotgun (2011, d. Jason Eisener)

Hausu (1977, d. Nobuhiko Ohbayashi)

Johnny Guitar (1954, d. Nicolas Ray)

7 Men From Now (1956, d. Budd Boetticher)

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994, d. Stephan Elliott)

A Scanner Darkly (2006, d. Richard Linklater)

Goodbye, Uncle Tom (1971, dir. Jacopetti & Prosperi)

Dolemite (1975, d. D'Urville Martin)

Truck Turner (1974, d. Jonathan Kaplan)

Used Cars (1980, d. Robert Zemeckis)

Re: the list in the article:

Any list that can introduce me to four films *I've* never even heard of before in any capacity is a list that holds worth to me. I also widely smiled upon seeing that it also included Daughters of Darkness (a seriously under-appreciated [and absolutely gorgeous] Eurohorror cinematic wonderment).

sorry - late to the party - my list of honorable mentions that haven't been honorably mentioned as of yet...

In the Company of MenThank You for not SmokingChokeFidoOutlandFlash GordonSlapshotSilent RunningSid & NancyRumble FishRosencrantz & Gildenstern are DeadRomper StomperResovoir DogsNinja ScrollNatural Born KillersLegendEasy RiderCry BabyCool WorldCavemanBaxterAngel HeartAmerican Psycho

Think Spinal Tap, but with a Norwegian boy-band that sings about such heartbreaks as finding that out that your girlfriend who told you she was 16 is in fact only 12, and falling in love with your cousin. Their failing career is revived when they secure a sponsorship from a fish-stick manufacturer.

The guy who plays the lead singer (and a few other roles) is a farking comic genius.

FriarReb98:GAT_00: Didn't get past the first listing. 2001 is not a cult film.

This. There's at least a dozen on the list that fall into the "i don't think you understand what 'cult film' means" list. My personal favorite "WTF is this doing on this list" one is the Star Wars saga. Not the 1977 film mind you, the SAGA. Oh, and The Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life are on the list too.

That being said, the blank in the headline, by this list's line of logic, is Office Space. By a farking mile of red Swingline staplers.

I would have to agree with the wrong use of cult films. Star Wars, 2001, Its a Wonderful Life, LotR... All big and famous films. Now there are some cult favorites on there, Evil Dead for example... But where is Office Space (or is it to famous to be considered cult any more).

uh, how about c) none of the above?i wasn't being a conservative partisan, i genuinely dislike npr's wine-and-cheese kinda taste. breitbart doesn't do nonpolitical cultural fluff like this anyway to my knowledge. how about cracked's webpage instead--they'd make a list i'd be more aligned with.

Puppet MasterGinger SnapsWestworldHighway to HellFeastPhantasmNightbreedSubspeciesDeep Rising (hey, I liked it. The creature's like something out of Lovecraft)CrittersChildren of the Corn (in both senses)

thattitanguy:Kurmudgeon: GAT_00: Didn't get past the first listing. 2001 is not a cult film.

Neither is Star Wars

Too bad, thattitanguy.

Seriously, if there is any film in the world that says "cult film" it's Star Wars. People eat, breathe and shiat Star Wars. I freaking went to the theater 18 times when it was released. Not because of how popular or successful it was, but because I was an avid fan of the film and so was every other kid in our neighborhood, but many people didn't understand our fanatic devotion to it.

I say again: Cult status is about how obsessive their fan base is; not about whether or not there are a lot of fans or a little. If people are judging cult status on whether or not a movie had a lot of people saw or liked it then many flops could be a cult movie because there's bound to be someone out there who likes it. Obviously that's not the case, because I'm not likely to have someone come up to me at DragonCon dressed up as their favorite character from Ishtar.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but if you are correct, Harry Potter should be number 1 on that list. Stupidest, most obsessive fans evar.